Took about 8 hours on normal. I bounced on and off at the beginning of this game but came back nearly a year later in Act 3 and the game clicked.
There is something within the dialogue, the bombastic characters, and the over-the-top manner in which weapons and kills occur that strongly clicked with me and I just played the game straight and beat it in a day after that point. It's in the same vein as Borderlands, broforce, gears of war, and a few other macho shooters except it isn't as silly as the former in terms of trying to be a comedy and it doesn't take itself as seriously as the latter.
It's called Bulletstorm because most of the fun in this game is based on all the "creative" ways you can kill enemies with your weapon + environment + leash combos. Its entire combat is predicated on this which is why it's a bit weak in the beginning when you only have the pistol + assault rifle which are the most boring weapons in the game. By Act 3 when you've unlocked most of the other weapons in the game you generally have many fun weapons that have different alternative firing modes that allow you to constantly pick off, crush, explode, and impale enemies with their type of ammo, or into the various environmental hazards. The names of the 130+ executions popping on the screen, the sound + visual effects, and the goofy & aggressiveness of the enemies lend themselves to me laughing through a lot of this game from that point on. The game has a cool sliding mechanic that allows you to slide at any point, it's a bit faster than sprinting and it kicks enemies into the air. The leash is the other central mechanic that allows you to pull enemies and certain objects toward the player and suspend them midair in slow motion.
However, there are a few things that nagged me. This is a linear FPS which was common in the 7th gen of gaming. That means you can't jump at all, and your protagonist has slower movement that ends up with him getting stuck into environments at times. You have permanent companions throughout the entire game, but they don't do as much damage as I expected. I hate this sort of thing in games where you have companions but they are less than useful.
The other thing that stuck out like a sore thumb was the fact that you have all these cool weapons yet you can only equip three at once, and when you go to the store and buy ammo for an unequipped weapon, it will unequip one of your current weapons and equips that weapon. It was odd, but this seemed to be a no-brainer for the devs because upon beating the game, you unlock overkill mode which allows you to equip all weapons at once and further allows you to have unlimited ammo for each weapon as long as you've completed all their skill shots. This is the preferred way to play the game for me, it's not a difficult game and it's not the type of game where I would enjoy losing a lot of health and constantly hiding to regenerate.
There's a cutscene bug at the beginning of Act 7 involving a story revelation that still isn't fixed.
Finally, the game ends on a surprise sequel bait cliffhanger, but the game never got a sequel and will likely never get one. Overall, it was a fun time. It is good shooting fun.
There is something within the dialogue, the bombastic characters, and the over-the-top manner in which weapons and kills occur that strongly clicked with me and I just played the game straight and beat it in a day after that point. It's in the same vein as Borderlands, broforce, gears of war, and a few other macho shooters except it isn't as silly as the former in terms of trying to be a comedy and it doesn't take itself as seriously as the latter.
It's called Bulletstorm because most of the fun in this game is based on all the "creative" ways you can kill enemies with your weapon + environment + leash combos. Its entire combat is predicated on this which is why it's a bit weak in the beginning when you only have the pistol + assault rifle which are the most boring weapons in the game. By Act 3 when you've unlocked most of the other weapons in the game you generally have many fun weapons that have different alternative firing modes that allow you to constantly pick off, crush, explode, and impale enemies with their type of ammo, or into the various environmental hazards. The names of the 130+ executions popping on the screen, the sound + visual effects, and the goofy & aggressiveness of the enemies lend themselves to me laughing through a lot of this game from that point on. The game has a cool sliding mechanic that allows you to slide at any point, it's a bit faster than sprinting and it kicks enemies into the air. The leash is the other central mechanic that allows you to pull enemies and certain objects toward the player and suspend them midair in slow motion.
However, there are a few things that nagged me. This is a linear FPS which was common in the 7th gen of gaming. That means you can't jump at all, and your protagonist has slower movement that ends up with him getting stuck into environments at times. You have permanent companions throughout the entire game, but they don't do as much damage as I expected. I hate this sort of thing in games where you have companions but they are less than useful.
The other thing that stuck out like a sore thumb was the fact that you have all these cool weapons yet you can only equip three at once, and when you go to the store and buy ammo for an unequipped weapon, it will unequip one of your current weapons and equips that weapon. It was odd, but this seemed to be a no-brainer for the devs because upon beating the game, you unlock overkill mode which allows you to equip all weapons at once and further allows you to have unlimited ammo for each weapon as long as you've completed all their skill shots. This is the preferred way to play the game for me, it's not a difficult game and it's not the type of game where I would enjoy losing a lot of health and constantly hiding to regenerate.
There's a cutscene bug at the beginning of Act 7 involving a story revelation that still isn't fixed.
Finally, the game ends on a surprise sequel bait cliffhanger, but the game never got a sequel and will likely never get one. Overall, it was a fun time. It is good shooting fun.